Jan 13, 2013

I get tremendously affected when people I have some kind of relation to die too young. Particularly when they are brilliant but troubled.

I cried like a baby when Michael Jackson died, a deeply problematic genius in his field. I wrote a reflection on him and his work and speculated about the future of superstars in the digital network society. The superstar - dead for ever? was the translated title. I wrote in Swedish.

Today I have shed tears over Aaron Swartz, when his name was popping up everywhere. [Yes, I am Oscar Swartz, but there is no relation that I know of]. He apparently hanged himself at the age of 26 in his Brooklyn apartment.

About a year ago I used my monthly column for IDG/Computer Sweden to write about the lawsuit Aaron Swartz was facing by the U.S. government for having wished to open up academic articles to the public. I demanded that "academia be liberated from over-profiteering intermediaries". Academic publishing must be revolutionized and the knowledge that is produced in universities must be let free!

For pieces about the death of Aaron Swartz, check out Wired and New York Times . To see more about the "crime" he was a suspect of and which could give him 35 or even 50 years in jail, read this piece from expert witness Alex Stamos in the case: The Truth about Aaron Swartz' "Crime". His "crime" was heroic.

I wish to share a picture I took 6 years ago, in january 2007. Aaron Swartz and other international net activists had attended 23C3, the 23rd Chaos Communications Conference in Berlin. I was there also. Some americans decided to go to Stockholm on the way back. Sweden was (in)famous for its vivid scene and activism for an open and free internet. We had the Pirate Bureau, The Pirate Bay, The Pirate Party.

I took some pictures at the dinner. Here is one with Gottfrid "anakata" Svartholm Warg in the foreground and Aaron Swartz in the background. The former is in prison in Sweden, after three months in solitary confinement. The latter is dead.

(Photo from my Flickr page, click it if you dare)

As a tribute to Aaron Swartz's work for academic freedom of information academics have now started posting their work as open access under the hashtag #pdftribute on Twitter. Wall Street Journal writes about it.

I was surprised to see Swedish newspapers covering this tragic event. Aaron Swartz was not exactly a household name. It seems that TT, the Swedish news agency, sent out an article that was taken up by several papers, e.g. SvD, AB, DN.

The view of sexuality in the 1960s and 1970s is very different from today. My book traces the change.

The repressive sexual climate of Sweden can be seen in media everyday. Dagens Nyheter, the largest daily newspaper, ran a front page (recurring) theme just 3 days ago: "Sex Addiction". They published a list of 10 sexual "problem behaviors". The list comes from a book the paper is pushing: ”Det är inte kärlek – när sex blir en drog”. In English the title reads: "It is not love - when sex becomes a drug". The problems:

Seduction and conquest: sexual interest that diminishes after a first date.

Purchasing sex.

Exchanging sex for other things or services.

Voyeurism. Watching others and seeing them in sexual ways without them knowing it.

"Sexual theft": to behave in sexually transgressive ways without being reprimanded.

Anonymous sex: sexually interact with unknown people, on the net or IRL.

Exhibitionism: make other people gaze on certain body parts with sexual significance.

Exchange of pain.

Exploitative sex or sexual abuse.

Why so afraid of "sex as a drug"? Maybe "love as a drug" is as deadly - or deadlier? What if the societal problem is too much love and too little sex? Could we expect politicians and influential voices to discuss that possibility today? Almost unimaginable! But they actually did in the 1960s as readers of my book will learn.

Both men and women frequently snap because of love and jealousy, which often has to do with a view of sexual ownership that accompanies love as a drug.

I think of the two 16 year olds, one girl and one boy in Sweden, who were convicted for murdering (English) a 15-year-old girl a couple of years ago. The convicted couple had a relationship. They were in love.

The boy had however quickly kissed Therese, another girl, at a party. They agreed to keep quiet about it. But Therese told her friends and the rumour spread to the boy's steady girlfriend who then demanded that he kill her "rival" or she would leave him. She even gave a final date and bombarded the boyfriend with messages to do it. He did it. At a later party and described himself in court as entirely under the spell of his girlfriend because of love.

A few days ago a man poured gasoline on a former partner (English) and put her on fire in a Swedish village. They had separated but a common child lived with both of them and were handed back and forth according to some schedule. When she handed over the 5-year old daughter she also told him about her new lover. Her former husband snapped. Love is dangerous.

The book, A Brief History of Swedish Sex, priced at around $7.99, is found here, with links to different platforms and ways to read it. Available on Amazon, Apple iBookstore and many other places.

Jul 30, 2012

The leader of the Young Christian Democrats of Sweden, Aron Modig, is visiting Cuba. Last Sunday he and Angel Carromero Barrios, a young Spanish conservative politician, sat in the front seats of a car in the Cuban countryside. The car crashed into a tree and the two men in the back seat died. Those men were political dissidents active in the Christian Liberation Movement in Cuba, Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero. CNN, DN, DN,

The two Europeans survived with some bruises and were taken to hospital and later to Havanna. During the week a police investigation has been performed. Witnesses to the accident have been heard. The surviving men from the front seats, the Swede and the Spaniard have been heard.

Aron Modig of Sweden of course wants to go home to Sweden but has been held by Cuban authorities since Monday afternoon (when he was released from the hospital). They said they needed him for the continued investigation of the accident and he is supposedly held by the Migration Authority. The Swedish Embassy visitedhimonThursday.

In the weekend Swedish media ran headlines that the Embassy wasdeniedaccess to Aron Modig. On Twitter both top journalists and law professors started to rage in populist ways.

Actually, The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has not claimed foul play in any way or form. They told media, who called them up and asked if they had visited Modig on Friday: "It was a holiday yesterday (Friday) in Cuba which made it difficult to contact authorities. We will see what happens on Monday."

Of course we could - and should - ask why Aron Modig is at all held by authorities. This is however too deep a question for Swedish journalism or law professors. They just say he shouldn't. He is a Swede and wants to go home!

They are ever so often "popujudicial nationalists". By this I mean that they are populists in that they focus on some infantile simplification of events that can be transformed into an easily understood headline. They are also "judicial nationalists": Sweden's system is always better than every other country's, down to the finest details, in handling of legal cases.

But how do these popujudicial nationalists even know that Aron Modig was not the driver of the car and caused two innocent people to die and is subject to a preliminary investigation?

I can find nothing in the reporting that identifies who drove the car until Friday, when a preliminary report was published in Cuba. This may not have been obvious from the scene of the accident. The report concludes that the Spaniard drove the car. Reuters reported (English). The case is not over however: "The report indicated possible criminal charges were being considered. The report's conclusion that Carromero was to blame for the accident suggested that he could face charges of reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter".

On Saturday Swedish tabloid Expressen discovered the Cuban investigation and published a short notice with a graphic from the report that shows how the accident happened. But Expressen did not even understand what the graph shows: That the accident took place just after a paved road ended and became a gravel road! Even with my Spanish I can read that on the graph.

Here is the official notice from the Cuban preliminary investigation, something that has not been covered by Swedish media. I also note that the Spanish Foreign Minister held a press conference on Saturday, telling that Cuba would continue the investigation with a "culmination" on Monday-Tuesday (=today & tomorrow) whereafter they would decide whether to charge the Spanish driver with a crime.

So how can Aron Modig be held by authorities at all?

Mårten Schultz, a law professor in Sweden who is always a quick shooter and commentator but also (or therefore?) a predictable "popujudicial nationalist" cannot see a reason for the Swede to be held by authorities in Cuba, especially not the Migration Authorities. As usual he refuses to think outside Sweden's legal handling of cases.

Well, in Sweden you can of course be held for very long times in the course of preliminary investigations if you are the suspect of a crime. Critics say that detention is severely over-used in Sweden.

It seems that at least after the preliminary report was published on Friday, the Swede, Aron Modig, was not anymore suspect of a crime, if he ever was. He could well have been. He is still a key witness however.

In Sweden the Police can bring in a witness by force and keep him/her locked up for 12 hours in order to extract information when they investigate a crime. Right or wrong? Too long or too short time?

In Sweden the Swedish Migration Board runs five Detention Facilities ("Förvar" in Swedish) where non-Swedish citizens can be locked up (for migration related questions) for up to two months without a court decision. Right or wrong?

I think we should be open to the possibility that Cuba behaves in a correct judicial way and follows the rules of their system when investigating a potential crime that led to two persons losing their lives. In Sweden you can be sentenced to imprisonment for killing people by reckless driving. If you have been drinking alcohol sentences can be stiff. It can be a very serious crime.

So the question would be: are those rules in Cuba "worse" than Swedish rules as the popujudicial nationalists insist - without knowledge about Cuban rules of course. I have no knowledge about the Cuban rules either but I have imagination:

What if they have rules in Cuba which says that if you are a witness to a serious crime and you are necessary for the investigation of that crime and you are expected to leave the country before a proper investigation could be made, then you can be put in detention for some days? Would it be shocking? Horrendous?

What if the Police in Cuba outsources detention of foreigners to the Migration Authority because they have nicer facilities than those for ordinary Cuban prisoners? Or what if Aron Modig has overstaid his Visa but is still needed for the investigation?

I can think of hundreds of scenarios and ways to handle situations like these (a foreigner who intends to get home as soon as possible but is either a suspect of or a key witness to crime and is needed by the authorities for this reason) in different legal systems without this necessarily being more outrageous than Sweden behaves in various situations. I agree that Aron Modig should be able to meet people from the Embassy or other people for that matter, even if they are afraid he will fly home. They could take his passport and more.

I am also open to the possibility that Cuba behaves in an extra-legal way. It is not a democracy and Aron Modig had contacts with dissidents. So it would not be entirely surprising if they held him to extract information. This is not something that has been suggested however.

My mistake, that afforded me bottomless ridicule from the establisment (top tabloid journalist, well-known law professor and top politician - at least) on Twitter yesterday was an ironic comment I made: I pointed out that authorities sometimes actually hold people when they want to interrogate them and mentioned that Julian Assange had been held in nightly house arrest, electronic bracelet etc for 600 days because the police wants just that.

The comparison is ridiculous the popujudicial nationalists claim. As I have shown above it may not at all be ridiculous.

When it comes to Assange he is wanted for interrogation concerning two main sex offences, one of which he has actually already been heard about: One of the Swedish women believes that he deliberately tore a condom. He denies.

The other woman did not want to participate in a specific sexual act. He performed it anyway. She then accepted it, commented on it, continued and afterwards joked about it. Later she regretted it however, seemingly influenced by friends, and feared HIV/STD so much that she wanted to force Assange to a test. When the story was heard by the police the Swedish judicial system claimed (not she) that she had been raped and off it went.

If one is not a popujudicial nationalist one can actually criticize the view of what kind of sex should constitue a serious crime ( as opposed to morally condemnable on a personal level) as well as Sweden's handling of the case.

To understand how politicized sex has become in Sweden and to understand how the Assange case could turn into a top national priority, read my book: A Brief History of Swedish Sex. The cover and links are also found in the top right column here.

Update Monday evening: Aron Modig has been released on Monday and will get back to Sweden now. Right so, we are all happy! My media and establishment critique stands. ABC News/AP (English), DN, SvD, SR, GP. I must say however that a press conference that is so swiftly called that the Embassy could not attend and where the two Europeans confessed to illegal activity (handing over money to the opposition) gives a bad taste. It is by the way very unlikely, given Sweden's national pride, that Assange would be interrogated in London, as the Ecuadorian Foreign Minister has suggested, Times of India (English) GP.

Since someone who does not know me may believe that I am a fan of Cuba: My basic political instinct is quite opposite to that of Cuba's. That instinct is Libertarian, but with substantial amendments when it comes to practical politics and legislation. If I mix my personal values with that basic political view I would describe myself as a "techno-progressive, green-leaning, anti-authoritarian, anti-consumist, lifestyle-libertarian, sex-positive, freedom-of-communications activist with a decent sense of social justice". I have voted for The Pirate Party in four elections.

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Swedish Sex delisted

Those who read this e-book were more shaken than stirred. It was published on the day of the Supreme Court decision in London that Julian Assange would be handed over to Sweden. When this never took place the topic lost part of its allure. It may be republished later with updates.